Livestream shopping platform Whatnot has acquired Shaped, a machine learning startup specializing in real-time recommendation and search technology, as the company expands its investment in artificial intelligence.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
AI Acquisition Targets Real-Time Recommendations
Whatnot said the acquisition will strengthen its product discovery and personalization capabilities by enhancing recommendations across its live commerce platform, where inventory and buyer activity change continuously.
According to the company, integrating Shaped’s technology will help deliver faster and more personalized recommendations as shoppers browse live auctions and product listings.
Emmanuel Fuentes, Vice President of Data and AI at Whatnot, said the company aims to improve recommendation speed and responsiveness for live shopping environments.
“By combining Shaped’s technology with Whatnot’s existing systems, we can make recommendations faster, more responsive, and more personalized.”
Shaped Team Joins Whatnot
Founded to develop AI-powered recommendation systems, Shaped combines machine learning and large language models to improve search and product discovery. Its customers have included Outdoorsy and QVC.
As part of the acquisition, Shaped founder and Chief Executive Officer Tullie Murrell and nearly a dozen engineers and AI researchers will join Whatnot. Murrell will lead the company’s newly established Applied AI Research group.
Founded in 2019, Whatnot said sellers on its platform have completed more than 1 billion orders. The company was valued at more than $11 billion following a $225 million Series F funding round last year and has continued expanding its marketplace with dozens of new product categories.
The acquisition comes as online marketplace operators increasingly adopt artificial intelligence to improve search, recommendations and customer engagement.